


Since We're Here Anyway

by helens78



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: mcshep_match, First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-24
Updated: 2007-08-24
Packaged: 2017-10-05 20:14:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helens78/pseuds/helens78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a power failure traps John and Rodney together overnight, no one complains.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Since We're Here Anyway

**Author's Note:**

> This was part of McShep Match in 2007, Team Romance. My prompt was "Shot in the Dark".

"Well," Rodney said, dropping down on the bed with a telltale _whoof_ of mattress stuffing being squashed, "I guess we've been in worse situations."

John laughed and fumbled around to the other side of the bed, where he stretched out next to Rodney. The mattress wasn't too bad--big enough to fit two, he remembered from when the lights had still been on, which didn't stop him from knocking Rodney in the arm with his elbow as he moved around. "Sorry," he said; they scooted a little further to the sides of the mattress. Rodney didn't even snap at him. What could he say? _"Use your radar sense to keep from hitting me"?_ They were three levels under the planet's surface, and the power was out. It was a pretty big windstorm, not too unusual, the Allalians had said--between that and the all-too-common Wraith attacks, it made sense to live underground. A few jokes about dwarves and mountain trolls aside, it was pretty comfortable.

Or it had been until the power blew out. Looked like they hadn't gotten a handle on those storms after all. "A power failure beats being held prisoner by the Wraith in my book," John pointed out. "C'mon. Relax. This happens here all the time, right? They'll have it fixed by morning."

"Yes, yes, I'm sure their maintenance team is top-of-the-line--for P4Z-975, anyway--but..." John couldn't see Rodney's hands flapping about, but he could hear rustling, and he could picture it. "You know."

"You're used to being one of the guys who hooks the lights back up."

"And the _doors_. No offense, Colonel, but if I had to be stuck with one of the three of you--"

"You'd rather it be Ronon, I know, I know," John filled in, grinning ear-to-ear. He had a feeling Rodney could picture that expression, too, because Rodney snorted at him. "Look, seriously. How about we try to get some sleep? It was a pretty long day." That was for sure; while there hadn't been anything to fight, thank Christ, there'd been a lot of things to see. And the Allalians had been very big on their own history. John couldn't remember the last time he'd seen so many historical landmarks or walked up and down so many sets of stairs--maybe the first time he'd gone to Washington, D.C., and that trip had had everything to do with being dragged along by some senator's aide, someone John was willing to follow only because he'd had a _great_ ass and had been full of energy. Not unlike Rodney, really, and look how much time John had spent following him, ostensible leadership of the offworld team aside. "We might have just as much walking to do tomorrow. Take your gear off, stretch out, the bed's obviously big enough for both of us."

"Seriously?"

John frowned. He'd anticipated having to talk Rodney into letting _him_ have a spot on the bed, not the reverse, and hell, they'd already both gotten comfortable here. "Yeah, why? What's wrong with that?"

"No, no, no. Nothing." Rodney sat up--John could feel his weight shift--and there were plastic snapping sounds and the sharp rip of velcro coming unfastened. Tac vest, okay, so that first, and probably Rodney's boots next. John sat up himself, swung his legs over the other side of the bed, and shed the same outermost layer of gear. "I just thought maybe--you know, U.S. military guys, all that 'don't-ask-don't-tell' stuff. I figured you'd have a heart attack if I pointed out that, even if this _is_ your room, my back would kill me if I tried to sleep on the floor."

"We've been on Atlantis how many years now? And you still think--" John stopped himself, shrugged even though Rodney couldn't see it. "I don't think any of us want your back going out tomorrow; you've still got plenty of power infrastructure to look at and consult on, now that we've gotten the history lessons out of the way."

"No shit," Rodney said. "Okay, give me a minute, I'm going to see if I can get the water going in the bathroom."

"Why wouldn't you be able to--" John thought about it for a second and realized he had no idea how the sinks worked here. He'd just stuck his hands under them before dinner, and lo and behold, water had come pouring out--a little cold, but plenty wet. So if the power to that had come out--what, no water? Hell.

Right on cue, Rodney started cursing. "What kind of morons put an electrically-controlled water system into their guest quarters when they _know_ they have issues with windstorms?"

"You want a water pack? You could brush your teeth, at least."

"Better than nothing."

John brought the water pack in and nudged Rodney aside so he could go first; if Rodney was going to pay attention to his oral hygiene this late at night in a power outage, he might as well do the same. It seemed like a bizarre thing to care about at the moment, but what the hell. Despite working blind, John's teeth felt pretty clean by the time he was through, and he headed back for the bed, stripping off and sliding under the covers with a surprised little sigh.

"What?" Rodney called, muffled with toothpaste.

"Nothing," John yelled back. "It's just nice. The bed."

Rodney yelled back something else, too muffled to make out, and when he padded back in, John asked, "What was that?"

"I said there better be room for me when I'm done."

John grinned. "There's room. C'mon."

More fabric rustling, and then the mattress sank down on Rodney's side and the covers flapped up. John grabbed for his half of them as Rodney turned on his side, anchoring them so Rodney couldn't steal the whole damn thing. Rodney grunted and tugged at them, and John tugged right back. "Screw you," he said, poking Rodney in the arm. "I've seen what your blankets look like when you're sleeping. Play nice and share."

"I am sharing!" Rodney sighed and rolled over again, and John could smell the mint on his breath. He closed his eyes. At least the cover wars were over, but now Rodney was close, almost uncomfortably close, and John rolled on his side, facing away from Rodney. Not his usual sleeping position--John was used to lacing his hands behind his neck and sleeping on his back--but at least this way Rodney wouldn't bitch at him for snoring, either.

A few minutes later, Rodney was still awake. "Hey," he said quietly.

"Yeah?"

"I was just thinking--if the power's off for too long, how cold do you think it's going to get in here?"

"Can't be worse than P5T-197."

"No, you're right, probably not."

"Good night, Rodney."

"Right."

Dozing on and off, John was vaguely aware of Rodney still shifting on occasion. That was fine at first, but around the third or fourth time Rodney woke him up, John rolled halfway over and grunted. "McKay," he mumbled. "_What?_"

"Nothing, I just, I can't--"

John had just enough time to think _mint_ before Rodney rolled half-on-top of him, mouth landing against the corner of John's lips, all warmth and fast little nervous breaths and toothpaste. John made a startled sound but grabbed for Rodney anyway, keeping him right where he was, nudging his lips into place and letting Rodney kiss him.

It was, he realized, like being in the middle of a really good dream. It was dark, there was nothing to see, just the sensation of Rodney's chest pressed up against his and these nice soft sheets and the way Rodney tasted, the sound of his breathing. John relaxed back into his pillow, let his mouth fall away from Rodney's; he blinked up into the darkness and licked his lips.

"Okay, so," Rodney said softly, "it doesn't feel like you hated that."

"No." John was quiet for a few seconds himself, then couldn't help chuckling. Not enough to hurt Rodney's feelings, he hoped. "No, but--why now?"

"As opposed to the myriad other times we've been trapped together in a dark room and nobody was trying to kill us or use us for food?"

"You may have a point," John conceded. "Are you going to do that again?"

"Do you want me to?"

John reached up, slid his hands from Rodney's arms to the back of his neck. He pulled Rodney down, and after a half-second's pause to adjust--Rodney's mouth had landed on John's upper lip--Rodney kissed him again.

And this was different, too--no more quiet, _we can pretend this didn't happen_ dream stuff. This was Rodney kissing John like _Rodney_, insistent and bossy, tongue pressing in deep and getting to know John's mouth. John went along with it, opening up and letting Rodney in, tugging Rodney closer until Rodney crawled between John's legs and stretched out on top of him. The covers were a tangled mess around Rodney's legs, and they were both more trapped than was really necessary, but at the moment John was too busy rocking his hips up and trying to get his hands on Rodney's ass to mind all that much.

"Can I--" Rodney moved down a little, enough to kiss John's cheek, his jaw, the side of his neck; John squirmed under him and closed his eyes hard. Rodney pushed up far enough to get a hand between them, and whatever he was asking, John was answering already, nodding against Rodney's mouth, breathing out _yes yes yes_ like he hadn't gotten to say it in years, moaning once Rodney's hand found its way into John's boxers and started stroking his cock, over and over and _twisting_, Jesus, until John had to stop saying _yes_ and just held his breath, trying to make this last.

"What?" Rodney stopped kissing John's neck, levered himself up; there was still no way to see John's expression, but he'd probably noticed how tense John had gotten. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," John said, squirming harder; Rodney's grip on his cock had loosened, and now it was practically a tease. "I'm going to... I'm close, okay?"

"_Oh._" Rodney stopped, and John grabbed for his shoulders when he started pulling back. "Hey, no, wait, I--" Rodney fell back on top of him with a grunt, and John aimed somewhere near his mouth and started kissing him again. It took three tries before he got to Rodney's lips, and by then Rodney had given up on going anywhere and just started grinding his hips down against John's, thrusting nice and solid against John's cock. After all this, that was plenty; John jerked under Rodney, gasping against his lips, and Rodney pulled his mouth free and dropped his head onto John's shoulder, panting hot and loud over John's skin as his cock jerked, too, and John could practically feel their boxers fusing into a nice sticky mess.

"I could've," Rodney started, and then he yawned and shook his head. "Oh, God. Let me up?" John shook his head. "You can't--" Another yawn. "Be comfortable, oh, God," Rodney went on, "just let me get my boxers off and I swear I'll sleep on you."

John's noises of protest went completely ignored as Rodney slid off him, and once Rodney was gone, John sighed and sat up, pushing his boxers down his legs and kicking them off the side of the bed. Rodney was messing with the covers by then, hitting John right in the face with them as he tried to lie down and pull them up, and John decided it was better to admit defeat and pass out; he stretched out on his back and let Rodney throw an arm over him. Rodney was just going to have to live with the snoring.

* * *

It wasn't cold when John woke up. It wasn't dark, either; there was a faint strip of light around the floor, something that reminded him of hotel rooms where the curtains weren't quite long enough to block out the sun completely. So the power was back on, and Rodney... Rodney was still sleeping on him, and John's shoulder felt kind of damp.

"Are you drooling on me?" he murmured. Rodney didn't answer, of course. John winced and started pulling himself out from under Rodney's head, and Rodney obligingly rolled over and let John head for the bathroom in peace.

Not for long, though, because once John was up, Rodney made a few confused noises and then sat up. John could see him from here--okay, he was asking for a "born in a barn" comment, but after last night, seeing him take a morning piss shouldn't totally scandalize Rodney, right?

And he was right about that; Rodney got up and stretched and headed for the bathroom, too, where he leaned against the doorframe and looked politely at the floor until John was finished. "The power's back on," he said.

"I noticed. Check this out." John stuck his hands under the faucet and grinned as the water turned on, though he lost his grin fast as he realized the water temperature was still a little colder than he would've liked. He washed his hands fast and gestured at the toilet. "Do you need to--"

"Can we, maybe, not pretend like last night didn't happen?"

John's eyebrows twitched together. "I wasn't--"

"Because I--you weren't." Rodney tilted his head. "You weren't?"

"If you'd let me get a whole sentence out without interrupting me--"

"No, you're right, I'm sorry--"

"Case in point." But John was grinning, and after a second, Rodney grinned back. Rodney nodded at him with his lips fixed together, crooked grin in place, and John took a breath, realizing that, oh yeah, that meant he had to _talk_ now. "Okay. I wasn't trying to pretend like last night didn't happen. I just suck at--"

"Talking about things?"

Maybe being interrupted wasn't so bad after all. "Yeah," John said, "but that doesn't mean I didn't _want_\--" The talking thing was _not_ working. John reached out and put a hand on Rodney's hip, stepped forward and got close to him. "I mean, I'm just saying, I always figured one of us was bound to--" Rodney was smirking. "What?"

"It is a sad, sad statement about someone when _I_ do better at taking the first step towards an affair or an involvement or whatever--"

"If I remember right, your first step happened in the dead of night during a power outage on a distant planet."

"Because you would have _loved_ it if I'd said, 'Hey, Colonel, want to go watch football with me and neck?' in front of half of Atlantis--"

"You're right. People would ask all kinds of questions about your sudden affinity for football."

"Oh, shut up--"

"It might be a sign of alien mind control--"

"No, really--"

Rodney kissed him again. This time he tasted more like morning mouth than toothpaste, and John realized he didn't give a damn. If last night was like a really good dream, this was the other side of the coin--trying to get a word in edgewise, Rodney trumping arguments he couldn't win by kissing him.

He was silent a few seconds even after Rodney let him go, and Rodney swallowed, looking nervous. "What?"

"I'm glad we're awake." John disarmed Rodney's puzzled look and the inevitable next question with a smirk and a nod towards the shower. "You wanna?"

"Yeah," Rodney said. "Just let me figure out how to get _hot_ water out of the thing."

"It's all yours," John told him, stepping aside.

_-end-_


End file.
